Re: Encoding the name in the file contents
On Wed, Jul 24, 2002 at 11:20:00PM +0200, Henning Makholm wrote:
> Scripsit Frank Mittelbach <frank.mittelbach@latex-project.org>
> > - or that you change to \NeedsTeXFormat{sniffenlatex} if your work is
> > intended for a "nonLaTeX" fork in which case you could keep the name.
>
> I'm not sure that it would make any difference to the people who currently
> consider the renaming requirement nonfree - but just as a data point:
> Would you consider the second of these options acceptable?
You've already had the discussion about who "you" is :-) I thought I
would chip in anyway.
I have serious doubts about the freeness of this option, and they are
motivated by what seems to be a closely analogous situation to me:
web browser identification strings.
Imagine that Microsoft, after being visited by aliens, decides to release
Internet Explorer under the MIT license. There is only one catch: they
added a clause that if you change the program in any way, you have to
change the way it identifies itself when making HTTP requests, and no
derived version is ever allowed to change it back.
1. Would you consider this free?
(I assume you are familiar with the technical implications)
2. Is this really a parallel situation?
(Consider that it protects web designers from having their HTML
rendered in an unexpected way.)
Richard Braakman
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